Antonín Dvorák’s chamber music output comprises over forty works. That he became known so quickly beyond the borders of Bohemia was due not least to the many discerning music aficionados who enjoyed playing his works. In the 19th century, domestic music-making was everywhere, and Dvorák’s Romantic Pieces for violin and piano op. 75 were also intended for music-making in private circles. Dvorák’s autograph has served as the basis of our Urtext edition of op. 75. Its preface provides many details concerning the genesis of the work, which was originally conceived as a string trio. We were able to engage Dvorák specialist Milan Pospísil as editor of this edition.

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Preface

If the name of Antonín Dvorák quickly became known outside the borders of Bohemia, this was due not least of all to a large number of highly cultured dilettante musicians. Domestic music-making was ubiquitous in the nineteenth century, and ensured music publishers a steady turnover for works appropriate to this purpose. The Romantic Pieces for violin and piano, op. 75 (B … more

Critical Commentary

About the composer

Antonín Dvorák

With Smetana he is the most famous Czech composer of the nineteenth century, contributing to the dissemination and appreciation of Czech music throughout the world. Among his around 200 works, encompassing all standard genres, are nine symphonies, fourteen string quartets, and twelve operas.

1841

Born in Nelahozeves (Mühlhausen) on the Vltava River on September 8, the son of a butcher and innkeeper.

1853

Attends the training school in Zlonice; there he receives a comprehensive musical education from Josef Toman and the cantor Antonín Liehmann; subsequent education in Česká Kamenice (1856–57).

1857–59

Studies at the organ school in Prague. Until 1871 he will earn his living as a music teacher, organist, and violist.

1861

String Quintet No. 1 in A minor, considered his first work.

1862

Position as solo violist in the orchestra of the Bohemian Provisional Theater (conducted by Smetana, among others)

1873

Breakthrough with the premiere in Prague of his patriotic hymn “The Heirs of the White Mountain,” Op. 30. Employment at the private Prague School of Music. Several state scholarships.

About the authors

Milan Pospísil (Editor)

Dr. Milan Pospíšil, born in 1945, studied music theory and music history at the Charles University in Prague as well as at the Ruhr-Universität in Bochum (1963–1969); in 1971 he did his doctorate there with a thesis on “Giacomo Meyerbeer: Les Huguenots. Příspěvek k analýze stylu”, and at the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences in 1988 on “Antonín Dvořák: Dimitrij, op. 64. Kritická edice”.

He worked as a specialist and scholar at the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences (now Academy of Science of the Czech Republic) in Prague for almost 30 years. In 1981 he co-founded the Smetana Festival and the interdisciplinary symposium on the issues of the 19th century in Pilsen, which still takes place today. Since 2000 he has been the curator and a research associate at the National Museum in Prague.

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Klaus Schilde (Fingering)

Prof. Klaus Schilde, born in 1926, spent his childhood in Dresden. There he was greatly influenced by Walter Engel, who taught him the piano (Kodaly method), composition and violin. From 1946–1948 he studied at the music conservatory in Leipzig with Hugo Steurer. After moving to the west in 1952 he studied with Walter Gieseking and Edwin Fischer, as well as with Marguerite Long, Lucette Descaves and Nadia Boulanger in Paris.

Schilde won numerous prizes. From 1947 onwards he gave concerts as a soloist and chamber musician on almost every single continent with renowned orchestras. He taught at the music conservatories in East Berlin Detmold, West Berlin, Munich, Tokyo (Geidai) and Weimar. From 1988–1991 he was President of the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich, where he also taught for decades as a professor. There are numerous radio and television broadcasts with Klaus Schilde as well as CD recordings. Schilde has contributed fingerings to almost 100 Henle Urtext editions.

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Kurt Guntner (Fingering and bowing for Violin)

Prof. Kurt Guntner was born in Munich on Mozart’s 183rd birthday. He studied the violin with Ludwig Ackermann, Max Rostal and Henryk Szeryng. At the age of 18, he made his solo debut in the Kongreßsaal at the German Museum in Munich, performing Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra. At the age of 22 he was appointed first concertmaster with the Bavarian State Orchestra. After 10 eventful years at the Bavarian State Opera with conductors such as Ferenc Fricsay, Joseph Keilberth and Hans Knappertsbusch, Rudolf Kempe invited him to become the first concertmaster with the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, giving him the opportunity to perform the violin solo in many of the great violin concertos.

Of particular appeal were the BR’s invitations to perform and record great violin concertos that were seldom played, including those by Casella, Schillings, Szymanowsky. Kurt Eichhorn initiated this series– Jan Koetsier, Marek Janowski and others conducted other concertos. Kurt Guntner was also first concertmaster with the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra for many years, and played with the Munich Bach Orchestra under Karl Richter, in the Association of Soloists in The Bach Week in Ansbach and with the Münchner Bachsolisten. In 1972 he founded the internationally acclaimed ODEON-TRIO, together with the cellist Angelica May and the pianist Leonard Hokanson, touring all over the world with them for 25 years. In 1976 Guntner was called to the tenured chair of violin at Munich’s Hochschule für Musik und Theater, teaching students from around the world for 28 years.

He made numerous recordings for radio, television, record and CD. Karl Schumann described Guntner’s broad musical personality thus: “Kurt Guntner is a practical orchestral musician, soloist, chamber musician and educator in one person”.

In 1997 Kurt Guntner was awarded the order of merit (first class) of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Kurt Guntner died on 9 January 2015 in Munich.

He was closely associated with G. Henle Publishers for several decades. Since the end of the 1980s he had produced numerous Urtext editions of works for violin for the publishing house, sharing pedagogically polished bowings and fingerings for different works including violin concertos by Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Bruch and Tchaikovsky, as well as numerous other editions.